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Retweet Etiquette

I know I’ve done it. After months of working on a new project, I release it to the world and am extremely proud. I tweet about it and maybe even occasionally retweet some nice things people are saying.

Dave Winer recently release Fargo and while I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet I do follow Dave on Twitter and he’s been busy promoting his new baby.

I have nothing against this, but along with his own tweets he’s been retweeting other people talking about Fargo, and in my option excessively. The majority of these retweets could be summarized in “Dave made a new outline tool. It’s cool.”

I’ll call these ego tweets, and the problem with ego tweets is that they provide no value. I as a reader of your tweet stream gain no relevant information or resources from them. Their sole purpose is to promote the fact a certain person likes something you are invested in.

As a comparision, one of the retweets Dave sent was good. From Lawrence Lessig:

This is a good retweet. It still has a bit of an ego smell in that here is a well known person talking about my product but the value is present as it gives me something to do. Fargo sadly does require a Dropbox account to do anything so if you don’t have one or are antsy about linking up with a new app blind this is a great resource.

Normally maybe I’d keep this bit of “retweet etiquette” opinion to myself but I was kind of disappointed in how my feedback was taken.

The lesson to be learned here is this:

If someone gives you feedback or criticism, just say thank you. If you want clarification or more information on their comment or disagreement feel free to have an adult conversation. Do not ever tell someone who has taken an interest in you or your products and is providing feedback to go away.